[单项选择]

There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. At present, we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil)is creating a "greenhouse effect" —conserving heat reflected from the earth and raising the world’s average temperature. If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and
A. raising the world’s temperature only a few degrees would not do much harm to life on earth
B. lowering the world’s temperature merely a few degrees would lead many major farming areas to disaster
C. almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade
D. the world’s temperature will remain constant in the years to come